Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from Tucker Glacier!

This blog entry was prepared before we left McMurdo Research Station. We do not have internet access at our field site!

Hi Friends!

We're at the end of our scheduled posts! I wish we had had more time to post pictures for you before leaving McMurdo, but our time here has passed so fast! Check back in early January!

We'll be back to blogging as soon as we're back at an internet connection, so look forward to a full season update in January. We hope to be able to blog from Mario Zucchelli Station, where we'll fly the first week of January.

We will take holidays and weather days off at Tucker Glacier! Camp Days can be lots of fun.

A homemade chess set!

Happy Holidays from the entire Tucker Glacier crew! More in January!

Claire

Following in the footsteps!

This blog entry was prepared before we left McMurdo Research Station. We do not have internet access at our field site!

Hi Friends!

One of the more exciting events during a field day is when we find evidence of early Antarctic researchers. We'll climb to the top of a mountain, and find that someone has left us something at the top!

Who knows what we'll find at Tucker Glacier! More scheduled posts to come! Hope everyone is having a lovely December.

Claire

Snowmobile Travel!

This blog entry was prepared before we left McMurdo Research Station. We do not have internet access at our field site!

Hi Friends!

Some of our field area will be too far away from our camp to access by walking. In these cases, we will use our snowmobiles!

In McMurdo, we attended two snowmobile operation and maintenance classes, which will be helpful if any of our snowmobiles require repair.

During a past season, we had to fix the suspension on one of our snowmachines!

Before leaving for a day of work, we'll fuel up our snowmobiles!

After a long day in the field, snowmobile seats are perfect for lounging!

Home is always a welcome sight!

More scheduled posts to come next week! Thanks for tuning in!

Claire

Glacial Geologic Mapping!

This blog entry was prepared before we left McMurdo Research Station. We do not have internet access at our field site!

Hi Friends!

While in the field, we will spend much of our time mapping evidence that Tucker Glacier was bigger in the past. We know parts of the Antarctic Ice Sheets used to be much bigger - thicker and more extensive - than today. We'd like to know how much bigger the ice sheet was in the past. A numerical dating technique called surface-exposure dating will allow us to determine when the ice sheet was bigger.  

At Tucker Glacier, we will climb the mountains near our camp, looking for evidence that ice was thicker in the past. This evidence may include striation marks - scratches left by glacial ice, glacial erratics - rocks that are different from the local bedrock, or glacial moraines - linear features of rocks that mark where the glacier used to be.

Glacial erratics are different from the underlying bedrock! Notice the bright pink rock on this small ridge that is just emerging from the ice. Where did it come from? Some people have likened searching for glacial erratics to an Easter egg hunt!

Glacial moraines are another example of evidence that ice was bigger in the past. Look closely at the floor of this valley. Can you see linear features? These mark an old ice boundary.

Glacial striations are another indication of past ice flow direction. These marks can be subtle; if you find striations in multiple locations, these features can be used to indicate past ice-flow directions. 

We will collect this evidence throughout our field area and compile it in glacial geologic maps! Once Once glacial geologic mapping is complete, our maps will show where Tucker Glacier was in the past!

Thank you for reading our blog! More scheduled posts to come!

Claire

Keeping in touch while in the field!

This blog entry was prepared before we left McMurdo Research Station. We do not have internet access at our field site!

Hi Friends!

While we're in the field, we are required to contact McMurdo Station every day to let them know we are safe. In one of our meetings at McMurdo, we met with McMurdo Operations (known as MacOps) to set up a daily check-in time; in this meeting, we agreed to contact the station every morning before 8:00 AM. We'll have two ways of contacting McMurdo: by a satellite phone, and by a high-frequency (HF) radio.

Every morning, whoever is on Breakfast Duty (which involves starting the stoves, melting snow for drinking water, and preparing breakfast) is also responsible for contacting McMurdo Operations to let them know that "we have five souls and all is well!" These conversations will also be an opportunity for us to coordinate Twin Otter flights or to receive messages from station.

Isaac, Greg and Brent set up the HF radio in McMurdo!

To use the HF radio, you need to attach the antenna and the handheld receiver to the radio, turn the radio on, set the radio to your desired frequency, and...

Call MacOps! A typical radio call will proceed as follows

Our Group: "MacOps MacOps MacOps this is Golf-Four-One-Zero on Four-Seven-Seven. How copy? Over."  (In this message, we're giving them our project number (G-410) and the frequency on which we're transmitting.)
MacOps: "Golf-Four-One-Zero, this is MacOps. I copy you loud and clear. Over." 

Our Group:  "MacOps this is Golf-Four-One-Zero, we have five souls and all is well. Over."
If MacOps receives that message they will "copy" and end their contribution with "MacOps Clear."

Greg and Isaac put away the HF antenna, after our radio test in McMurdo. In the field, we'll hang the antenna from bamboo poles.

We will use our satellite phone if we can't hail MacOps over the HF radio. We will also take the satellite phones with us on our day trips to make sure we can establish contact with the station in the event of an emergency! Satellite phones are also the only way we have to contact our families. We typically try to contact our families once a week and on holidays as well!

Stay tuned for the next scheduled post! Hope all is well. Thanks for checking in,

Claire

First full day in the Field!

This blog entry was prepared before we left McMurdo Research Station. We do not have internet access at our field site!

Hi Friends!

On our first full day in the field, we'll all be impatient to explore the mountains surrounding our camp. This blog post from an earlier season has some great pictures of our first day. After a delicious breakfast, we'll set out on our first hike!

The views will give us perspectives on the surrounding area and help us prioritize our field work in the coming days!

More scheduled posts to come! We hope all is well back home. Thanks for checking in,

Claire

Camp Put-In!

This blog entry was prepared before we left McMurdo Research Station.
We do not have internet access at our field site!

Hi Friends!

When we arrive at our field camp, we'll have a lot to do to set up our camp! This blogpost from a past season in the Pensacola Mountains will give you an idea about what our first day in camp will hold.  

First, we'll unload the Twin Otter...

and then say goodbye to the plane!

As you remember from previous posts on this blog, we'll have three Scott tents and one Arctic Oven tent to set up. 

We will also need to set up the bathroom! We build a wall made of snow blocks:

We also extend a flag line to the bathroom facilities from the main camp...

...in the event that visibility is reduced by a storm!

More scheduled blog posts to come. Thanks for checking in. Stay tuned!

Claire

 

We're flying out!

Hi Friends!

After a short weather delay, we're flying to Tucker Glacier in an hour and a half. I thought I'd share one more picture of where we'll be calling home for the next month or so!

We'll camp at the base of this mountain! Home sweet home! Photo by Chris Simmons!

We'll miss being in touch! I've scheduled several posts for you to enjoy while we're gone. We'll be back to blogging in early January! Keep checking in!

Claire

Tucker Glacier

Hi Friends,

We're on the flight schedule for tomorrow, Monday, December 8th! We're scheduled for transport to the airfield at 8:00 AM. Where exactly are we going? We're traveling north from McMurdo Station to Tucker Glacier.

Our camp at Tucker Glacier is about 370 miles north of McMurdo Station. Our field mountaineer, Chris Simmons, flew there on a cargo flight last week; the flight from McMurdo to Tucker Glacier Camp was about two hours long.  The plane then stopped to refuel at Mario Zucchelli Station, an Italian research station, on the way back to McMurdo.

Tucker Glacier Landing Site. Photo by Chris Simmons!

By Saturday, Twin Otters had transported nearly all of our cargo to Tucker Glacier. As you've read about in past posts, we've spent much of the last week collecting our cargo and preparing it for flight!

Forklifts then transported our cargo to the airfield so it could be loaded on the planes!

Tomorrow, we'll fly with a little bit of cargo, and our carry-on luggage. We will stay at Tucker Glacier camp until the first week of January, when we'll fly to Mario Zucchelli Station. Brent will continue on to McMurdo so he can head home to teach his class! The rest of us, Greg, Chris, Isaac, and I will stay at Mario Zucchelli Station for a week, traveling via helicopter to glaciers close to the station.

We'll return to McMurdo the week of January 12th, and we're scheduled to return to Christchurch by January 20th!

I've scheduled some posts that will be published while we're gone, to fill you in on more of our field activities. We'll let you know when we return from Tucker Glacier - we hope we can contact you from Mario Zucchelli station!

Thanks for following our blog! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Claire

Tents and Sleep Kits!

Hi Friends,

We have dedicated much of our time in the past week to collecting all of our field gear and submitting it to the cargo system. In addition to food, we'll require tents, communications equipment, solar power systems, snowmobiles, kitchen equipment, and sleep kits! Future blog posts will explore snowmobiles and our power and communications systems. This blog post will focus on tents and sleep kits.

In the field, we'll build a camp that consists of three sleeping tents, and one "cook tent." 

Schmidt Hills Camp, Pensacola Mountains, December 2010.

Part of our work here in McMurdo is to set up our tents and make sure everything is in order!

Our cook tent will be a 10 feet by 20 feet "Arctic Oven" tent.

Our cook tent will serve as our center of operations in camp! Here's our 2011-12 field team (left to right: Greg, PLU Geosciences alum Matt Hegland, PLU Professor Dr. Kat Huybers, Dr. Seth Campbell, and Chris!

Setting up an Arctic Oven requires teamwork, but is easily accomplished in the warmth of McMurdo's Berg Field Center. Our practice will pay off when we're setting it up at our field site!

Can you find Brent?

Our sleeping accommodations will be Scott tents! The same design used by the famous British Antarctic Explorer Robert Scott. These tents are over 7 feet high when set up!

The inside of a Scott tent is spacious! The floor of the tent is 9 feet by 9 feet.

Exiting a Scott tent is accomplished by pushing yourself through a cloth tube. Isaac accomplishes this gracefully. Factors that may complicate exiting a Scott tent include: wearing a large jacket, wearing large boots, and needing to take a large bag with you. I never manage to exit a Scott tent without some sort of struggle.

A Scott Tent sleeps two people plus their stuff!
Notice the guy lines securing the tent to the snow! These lines are attached to anchors buried in t-slots - see our Glacier Travel blog post! We also bury the valances, or the flaps that surround the tent, in snow.

The US Antarctic Program issues each participant a "sleep kit" specially designed for comfortable, warm nights in an Antarctic field camp. 

Sleep kits contain a sleeping bag, a fleece sleeping bag liner, a pillow, two sleeping mats, a first aid kit, and a pee bottle - which is exactly what it sounds like.

Our sleeping bags are rated to 60 degrees below zero!

On that note, it's time to turn in here. It's 10:45 PM, Friday December 5th in McMurdo!

Isaac and I have been working hard getting all of our work done before we leave for the field. We're scheduled to fly out Monday, subject to weather of course!

It's 1:45 AM Friday, December 5th at PLU! Hope everyone is sleeping well!

More from us tomorrow,

Claire